The lure of Long Beach

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Presented with the Compliments

of

BEACH HAVEN REALTY
COMPANY

BEACH HAVEN, N. J. PHILADELPHIA

Geo. W. Taggart, Gen. Sales Agt. 801 Crozer Bldg., 1420 Chestnut St.

OFFICERS

Pm,-^.«/-Warren Webster, President Warren Webster Co., Camden

Vtce-President-l^n... B. Caruth, 16th and Spring Garden Streets, Philadelphia

Secretary-non. M. L. Berry, ex-Judge of the Court of Common Pleas,

Ocean County, N. J.

Treasurer and General Mana,er-Yion . W. Mercer Baird, ex-Mayor of Beach Haven

Proprietor of Baldwin Hotel

DIRECTORS

Geo. H. Holman, President Ocean County Trust Co., Toms River, N. J.

Dr. C. H. Conover, Tuckerton, N. J.

Chas. W. Beck, President Beck Engraving Co., Philadelphia

Send for a copy of our handsome new booklet,
"On to Beach Haven." It's free and contains
some valuable information. Write at once.

/'

THE LURE of LONG BEACH

By GEORGE B. SOMERVILLE

PUBLISHED, 1914, BY

THE LONG BEACH BOARD OF TRADE

Ti

41

That the people of these United States may have op-
portunity to decide intelligently upon the important question
of a summer seashore rest and playground for themselves
the following brief resume of Long Beach Island is given
to the world.

COPYRIGHT, 1»14. BY
THB LONG BEACH
BOARD OF TRADE

l";

CONTENTS

Chapter Page

I — The Lure of the Sea 5

II — The Lenni Lenape 10

III — Jersey Discovered 15

IV— Berkeley and Carteret .... 20

V — Early Life on the Beaches . . 25

VI— Old Bond's 30

VII — Early Days of Beach Haven . . 44

VI I I—Long Beach Resorts 49

IX — Long Beach Recreations ... 58

X — Flotsam and Jetsam 64

XI — Retrospection and Conclusion . 70

little ecc harbor inllt
'brioantine
ATLANTIC CITY

yiONGPOflT

''ocean city

LONG BEACH
RESORTS

Barnegat City
High Point
Harvey Cedars
Surf City
Beach Arlington
Ship Bottom
Brant Beach
Peahala

Beach Haven Terrace
Spray Beach

North Beach Haven

Beach Haven

Hoi gate

Sea Haven

33

The Lure of Long Beach

I

THE LURE OF THE SEA

THE lure of the sea has been calling irresistibly
to the sons and daughters of men since the pre-
Adam days. Its mysteriousness, its vastness, its
vagueness, its incomprehensibleness, its sublimity and its
cruelty alike have been sung, and almost worshiped, for
ages.

No man may place his finger upon the particular
attribute of old ocean that most appeals to mankind — its
lure is a combination of all its wonders. A sunrise on
the sea has kept the artists of the world distracted since
paint and palettes were invented ; and a flaming, blood-
red, golden-gloried sunset is beyond the depiction of
finite mind ; indeed, almost beyond finite comprehension,
so majestic, so sublime is its superterrestrial grandeur.

From time immemorial legend and history tell of the
people journeying toward the sea. Its call has been po-
tent in all ages and in every latitude, and men have risked
their lives upon its fluid, cold and pitiless bosom since
anthropic animals first learned the rudiments of naviga-
tion by paddling a log with arms and hands.

" Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea !
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me."

The human mind is all but blank in the presence of
old ocean's majesty, and there is one predominating

The Lure of Long Beach

thought that at some time or other has flitted through
the mind of every loiterer by the sea : " I am here today;
this wonderful waste of water was here yesterday, will be
here tomorrow ; rolled for asons before I came, and will
roll on and on when I am gone. Why ?"

In addition to bearing upon its tireless bosom the rich
argosies of the ancient and modern world, the sea has
contributed much toward the sustenance of the race
since man has lived upon this earth; and it is still con-
tributing, still inviting men to come and take freely.

But gathering one's food from the caverns of the
deep is not an avocation suitable for weaklings. It is a
stern occupation, and requires the mental and physical
prowess of the adventurer. In seafaring life among
men, as among the denizens of the deep themselves, the
doctrine of the survival of the fittest is the supreme law.
The weakling riding upon the crests of the waves and
the weakling in the mysterious depths of the waters are
alike the victims of the unrelenting life.

And the contemplation of the terrible submarine
tragedies that have been enacted beneath its mute and
sun-kissed surface— indeed, that may even be in progress
as one gazes across the placid waters— adds to the appal-
ling grandeur of it all. And the dreamer turns from the bat-
tles of the deep to the strivings among the children of men.
Fortunately, however, the morbid is not the domi-
nant note in the music of the sea. In its serious moods
Its exhibitions of irresistible power are awe-inspiring;
but the summer visitor rarely sees the ocean in mighty
travail with the storm king.

The Lure 0/ Long Beach

It is in summer as though the majestic ocean were
tamed for the season. For a distance of five to ten miles
seaward the stroller may view a passive, quiet, sunlit field
of seemingly endless blue water. Here and there a sail
may be descried far out upon the rim of the visible world
of waters. It passes slowly, so slowly to the watcher on
shore that he is almost persuaded it rests at anchor, on-
ward along that vague penumbral line where sky and
waters seem to meet, and that we call the horizon.

And the ship may be bound for China ; indeed, most
people like to imagine passing ships as bound for China ;
there is something so subtly oriental and poetic in the
thought — and China is as good a country as any for
dream ships outward bound.

And the slowly passing sail goes on and on, across
the blue, world-wide stage, while the inland rester sits
quietly on the beach or in the cooling shade of some
columned seashore hotel porch and drinks in the quiet
and rest and peace fulness and inspiration of the wonder-
ful scene. And these serene moments by the edge of
the sea — coupled, of course, with the seasons of gayety
and care-free life — are the peak-tops of the land dweller's
enjoyment during his annual visit to the shore. And an
annual jaunt down where,

" Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forests,"

is more and more becoming a national institution among
the American people as the years roll by. American
business life is conducted at so high a pressure that com-

^ The Lure of Long Beach

plete relaxation—which means absolute rest amid sooth-
mg environments; in short, getting back to nature
undisturbed— for at least two weeks in the year is
imperative if the work-a-day man or woman hopes to
maintam himself or herself at a worth-while standard of
efficiency.

There are, of course, prominent voices that decry
vacations; but these voices are the servants of minds so
obsessed with work and dollar-making that to them a
period of rest is so much time wasted. We are told that
insanity is but a matter of degree, and these minds are so
doUar-msane that the poetry of the restless sea has no
appeal. Life to such as these is one continual dollar-
hunt, and their hours on earth are regulated by a golden
time-clock.

But to the normal man and woman to whom life is
something more than an expedition in discovery of bac-
teria-covered bills, the calmness of a rest by the heaving sea
is as the crooning of a mother to her frightened babe.

It oftentimes takes years for the simplest fact— the
ideal seashore resort suited to one's individual needs, for
instance— to get through the skulls of men and women.
Like the pursuit of a suitable hair tonic for one's own
particular scalp, the inland dweller is prone to choose
successively, and to flit annually from one shore spot to
another. But it may be accepted as an indisputable fact
that the resort offering the greatest opportunity for real
seaside rest, with the minimum of annoyance, is the best
spot for the man or woman really desirous of giving
assistance to imposed-upon nature.

2 he Lure of Long Beach

Nor does it follow that the seashore resort using the
greatest newspaper space to herald its merits to the
world is the most desirable for the rest-seeking man,
woman, or family. The choicest scenic spots in the
United States are not pictured in the railroad guides or
blazoned in the newspapers or books of travel. But
they are known to perhaps one, perhaps a coterie of
appreciative artists who also have the adventure bacilli in
their veins.

The old order changeth and the American
people are rapidly coming to realize that the
purpose of a summer vacation by the cooling,
health-restoring sea is simply to rehabilitate their
minds and bodies for efficient performance of
their share of the world's work throughout the
remainder of the year.

That the people of these United States may
have opportunity to decide intelligently upon
the important question of a summer seashore
rest and playground for themselves the follow-
ing brief resume of Long Beach Island is given
to the world.

10

The Lure of Long Beach

II
THE LENNI LENAPE

NEXT to the true sea lover's delight in the
niajestic beauties of the boundless ocean comes
his sympathy and fellow-feeling for those who
have preceded him in the enjoyment of its marvels. The
loiterer on the white beach sands turns backward along
his mental pathway as he gazes meditatively out across
the heaving billows, and almost unconsciously transports
himself into the days of the long ago. He mingles with
those shadowy hosts who have sighed and dreamed be-
side this same flood of waters, and, like Hamlet, he
speculates upon the utility and the wherefore of it all.
If the beach stroller happens to be of a scientific turn
of mind he will remind himself of his studies of ancient
man, what he was, how he lived, and where. He will
recall to mind his wanderings through the mazes of
archaeology and will hold quiet discourse with himself.
Perhaps it is these quiet communings one has with one's
self by the mighty and peace-inspiring sea that draws
mankind to its moaning shore.

" How long have men wandered along this coast ?"
is his sentimental and unscientific method of questioning
himself. He is aware that science has advanced some
claim that man was in America during a paleolithic age,
and that his implements, principally of argillaceous sub-
stances, have been found in the Trenton (New Jersey)
gravels ; that the remains of vanished animals similar to

The Lure of Long Beach 11

those in Hke gravels in Europe have been unearthed,
and, lastly, the remains of prehistoric man himself have
been found.

But this rumination is altogether too misty and irksome
for a summer day by the waves, and the rester trips
mentally and airily down the ages until he finds himself
making wampum from clam shells in company with the
Lenni Lenape Indians who once roamed the beaches.

"Ah!" he sighs; **this is something like. Here is
Romance. Here are the heroic braves ; the dark-eyed
Indian maidens ! "

But the Red Man's history in New Jersey, especially
after the arrival of the white man and his fire-water, is
anything but heroic.

The Lenni Lenape, or Delawares, were of the great
Algonkin family of Indians whose many tribal branches
were scattered along the Atlantic seaboard from the
bleak reaches of Labrador to the Everglades of Florida.

The name Lenni Lenape signified, according to the
different translations, "Our Men," the "Original" or
" Pure Indian." The Delaware (Lenni Lenape) nation
occupied the territory now comprising the State of New
Jersey, and lived along the river valleys because of the
abundance of easily acquired and nature-provided food.

But before the seashore dreamer invests the early
Lenni Lenape with the implied qualities of the valiant
Hiawatha and the winsome Minnehaha he will recall
that these original Jersey men were dark-eyed, black-
haired, with the all too well-known scalp-lock, and that
their bodies were usually smeared with animal oils and

12 The Lure of Long Beach

stained in fantastic and symbolical designs with mineral
or vegetable dyes.

William Penn, writing of the Indian houses, speaks
of their being fashioned like English barns, and Pastorius
sets forth that young trees were bent to a common center
and a shelter formed by the branches being fastened
together and covered with bark. All the early writers
agree that the interior of these Indian houses were in-
tolerably dirty, and that scarcely any attention was paid
to the most elementary laws of sanitation.

But the Lenni Lenape was generous, and until he left
New Jersey he invariably motioned his guest to the mat
in the center of his wigwam — the seat of honor. The
Indians of New Jersey, if they did nothing else worth
while, have earned a place on the menu cards of America
in that they invented that succulent dish of boiled corn
and beans now known as *' succotash."

Polygamy was permitted, but the Lenni Lenape was
a wiser man than Solomon in this, for, "owing to the
trouble and annoyance of a plurality of women, polygamy
was but little practiced."

The Indian boys had a Spartan time of it until their
sixteenth or eighteenth year, when, if found to be pro-
ficient in all manner of tribal physical exercises, fishing
and hunting included, they were "initiated" into the
tribe. But there were no suffragettes in those days, and
the women bore the brunt of daily life in the wilds.
Theirs it was to toil and plant and reap and carry the
burdens.

But such were the customs, and rebellion against the

[v^'f^ '.r,ftt#^

The Sayonara, Owned by Dr. K. H. Williams,
the First Herreshoff Boat in Little E^^ Harbor Bay

Shell Mounds of the Indians, Tuckerton Creek

^

V

'J

33

The Lure of Long Beach 13

conventions was unknown. Indeed, it would have been
considered a violent breach of etiquette for a gentleman
Indian to beg a lady Indian's pardon and relieve her of
her stone hoe.

And the Indian maidens of those days, when they
attained to the age of sixteen and began casting about for a
beau, were not driven to the expedients of raiment and
deportment sometimes affected by their modern white
sisters on the summer boardwalks of today. Nor were
matrimonial bureaus necessary. When the Indian maiden
decided to marry she advertised the fact, simply but effec-
tively, by donning a crown of red or blue bay leaves.

Then the throng of young braves stood aside and
looked over the living, walking advertisement columns,
selected the '* Want Ad" that suited, and arranged with
the families and the Medicine Man.

The wedding ceremony was a simple and unostenta-
tious event, with no church splurge, no taxicabs, and no
huge caterer's bill coming in afterward to provoke pa
Indian's profanity. When the relatives had all gathered
around and the howling had ceased for a moment, the
young brave handed a bone to his lady love, and she in
turn handed him an ear of corn. This exchange signi-
fied that the gentlemen would provide the meat and the
lady the bread necessary to maintain the newly estab-
lished family. It was beautifully, artistically simple, with
no clergyman to fee.

New Jersey was called Scheyecbi in the Lenni
Lenape tongue ; Philadelphia was known as Coaquanock,
and Trenton was Chickohacki.

The Lure of Long Beach

The original Lenni Lenape was described by the
early writers as being almost lovable in his hospitable
simplicity, but when a half century had given the white
man's liquors and the intermixture of bloods a chance
to show what they could do it developed that the red
man was not what he once had been ; he was not pos-
sessed of the white man's mental power to resist temp-
tation and overindulgence. As an act of charity he was
placed beyond beckoning temptation, upon a reservation
—the first in the United States. This tract of land con-
sisted of three thousand acres near Edgepeleck, or
Brotherton, now known as Indian Mills. The Lenni
Lenape remained on this reservation until 1802, when
they joined their fortunes with the Mohegans and
removed to the State of New York. They removed
again at a later date to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and ulti-
mately to Indian Territory.

The last act of the Lenni Lenape drama — or tragedy
—occurred when the New Jersey Legislature appropri-
ated the sum of two thousand dollars in 1832 to extin-
guish all the right, title and interest which the Lenni
Lenape held or might hold against the colony or State.

Vale, Aborigine!

On the shores of Gitche-Gumee,
Of the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood Nokomis, the old woman,
Pointing with her finger westward,
O'er the water pointing westward,
To the purple clouds of sunset."

The Lure of Long Beach 15

III
JERSEY DISCOVERED

CHRISTOPHER COL UM BUS discovered
America on October 12, 1492, but it was not
until a century had passed that New Jersey
entered upon its New World history.

Henry Hudson, sailing up-coast from the Delaware
Bay on or about the first of September, A.D. 1609, was
the first Englishman to make note of the seashore that
has since become famous the world over. And it was
only because of a change of plan in Hudson's mind while
in mid-ocean that New Jersey was sighted then. The
navigator had set out upon his voyage of discovery for the
purpose of finding a northeast passage to India, but
bethought himself otherwise while at sea and determined
to seek a northwest passage at 40° N. latitude. He failed
to find this and spent a week cruising in the Delaware
Bay and River, then proceeded up the coast now known
as New Jersey and landed from the ** Half Moon " upon
Sandy Hook,

From early sketches and from the navigator's own
diary it appears that the "Half Moon" kept well within
sight of land during the voyage from the Delaware
Capes to Sandy Hook, and if the bathers of the Jersey
seashore resorts had been spending their 1609 September
vacations on the sands of Long Beach they would have
been accorded a passing review of the ship of original
discovery. But about the best the modern bather can

}^ ^ The Lure of Long Beach

do is to gaze upon the p/ace where the "Half Moon"
passed some thj ee hundred and five years ago.

The next adventurer to view the Jersey Coast was
Captain Cornelius Jacobson Mey, and the captain's name
is well spread out over South Jersey to this day, par-
ticularly in Cape May County, Cape May Court House,
Cape May City, and Mays Landing on the Great Egg
Harbor River. The names of two South Jersey county
seats have fallen to the honor of this Dutch sailor— Cape
May Court House, being the county seat of Cape May
County, and Mays Landing, being the county seat of
Atlantic County.

It was some time in June, A.D. 1614, that Captain
Mey sailed up the Jersey coast and explored Great Egg
Harbor Bay and River, just below Atlantic City, and
Little Egg Harbor Bay and River, just above that resort.
Captain Mey sent some of his crew ashore in the ship's
longboat, and they landed on the marshes and began
prowling about much as seashore visitors do today. But
they were unable to walk fast or far without stepping on
the nests and eggs of all manner of shore birds, and the
air above them was filled to blackness with thousands
upon thousands of frightened, screaming waterfowl.
And it was because of this novel and interesting incident
that Captain Mey named the adjacent county "Eyren
Haven," which, translated from the Dutch, means
" Harbor of Eggs." Hence the prevalence in the vicinity
of Long Beach of names embracing the words "Egg
Harbor," including Little Egg Harbor (now Tuckerton),
Little Egg Harbor Inlet (the best and deepest ocean

Spanish Coins, 1682-1795
Found in the sand near Beach Haven, from collection of Chas. W. Beck

-]

111!

Dining Room Door, Hond'.s Loiiu Beach House

<i-

The Lure of Long Beach ^^

inlet from Sandy Hook to the Delaware Breakwater),
Egg Harbor City, etc.

In the year 1632 Sir Edmund Plowden, of Ireland,
together with eight associates, petitioned King Charles I
for a grant of the land, " Manitie or Long Isle, and thirty
miles square of the coast next adjoining, to be erected
into a County Palatine called Syon."

This petition did not receive the stamp of royal
approval, but it was re-presented, the second prayer
designating Long Island as **Isle Plowden" and the
county palatine "New Albion," with forty leagues square
of the adjoining continent.

Sir Edmund and his associates agreed to "settle five
hundred inhabitants for the planting and civilizin g thereof ."
Upon the presentation of this petition a patent was
granted and Sir Edmund Plowden was appointed Governor
over the area of New Albion, which embraced the land
now comprising the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware and Maryland, as well as Long Island. The
grant included Maryland, notwithstanding the fact that
this territory had been granted to Lord Baltimore some
years earlier.

After a succession of misadventures in and pertaining
to New Albion there appeared, in December, 1648, a
"Description" of the new territory, written by Beau-
champ Plantagenet, a relative of the far-famed Richard
Cceur de Lion, King of England. And in this "De-
scription" may be found, in seventeenth century verbiage,
the beginnings of the literary art of exploiting seashore
real estate.

18

The Lure of Long Beach

New Albion was likened unto Lombardy, with "a rich,
fat soil, plain and having 34 rivers on the main land, 17 great
Isles, and partaketh of the healthiest aire and most excel-
lent commodities of Europe." Forest woods of every kind
were abundant, with fowl, fish, salt, corn, good mines of
minerals, dyer's ware, **5 sorts of deer, buffes and huge
elks to plow and work, all bringing 3 young at once." In
the uplands were *'hogges and turkeys 500 in a flock, and
having near the colony of Manteses 400,000 acres of plain
mead land and meer levell to be flowed and fludded by
that river for corn, rice, rapes, flax and hemp."

"I saw there," writes Master Evelin, in his letter to
"Madam" Plowden,"an infinite quantity of bustards, swans,
geese and fowl." Turkeys there were, one which weighed
forty-six pounds. Whales and grampus swam the sea,
while on land were "cedars, cypresse, sassafras, pine apples
and the dainty parsemenas."

AH through New Albion, according to these early
writers, were scattered the seats of Kings, that near Tren-
ton being called Kildorpy, "neer 200 miles up from the
ocean, it hath clear fields to plant and sow and neer it is
sweet large meads of clover or honeysuckle ... a ship
of 140 tuns may come up to these fals which is the best
seat for health, and a trading house to be built on the
rocks and ten leagues higher up are lead mines in stony
hills."

But the high- water mark of early New Jersey grandil-
oquence is the description of Mount Plowden, "the seat
of the Raritan King . . . twenty miles from Sandhay
sea and ninety from the ocean, next to Amara hill, the

The Lure of Long Beach 19

retired paradise of the children of the Ethiopian Emper-
our, a wonder, for it is a rock, two miles compasse, 150
foot high, a wall like precipice, a strait entrance easily
made invincible, where he keeps two hundred for his
guard, and under it is a flat valley all ready to plant and sow."

Wake ! Wake ! my Jersey Muse, and sing
The glories of thine Albion King !

20

The Lure of Long Beach

IV

BERKELEY AND CARTERET

SIR EDMUND PLOWDEN died in 1659, but
even before his death the Plowden title to Wew
Albion became hazy. In 1659 Philip Calvert, of
Maryland, set forth the claim that Plowden had never
obtained title from the King, but had received his patent
from the Viceroy of Ireland, and that consequently it was
valueless. In 1784 one Charles Varlo, an Englishman,
came with his family to America to assert his title to the
one-third part of the charter which he had purchased
from the Plowden heirs. While in New Albion he trav-
eled from place to place distributing a pamphlet setting
forth the abstract of his title, and gave out also, in 1785,
"A Caution to the Good People of New Albion alias,
corruptly called, at present. The Jerseys," warning them
against contracting for or buying any land in the province.
Varlo failed to obtain redress by suit in Chancery and re-
turned to England. With his departure died the claims
of the Plowden interests to New Albion.

On June 23 and 24, A. D. 1664, James, Duke of
York, signed deeds conveying the land now known as
New Jersey to two faithful House of Stuart men. Lord
John Berkeley, Baron of Stratton, and Sir George Car-
teret, of Saltrum, '' to be called by the name or names of
New C^sarea or New Jersey." The name thus desig-
nated was in honor of the defense in 1649 by Sir George
Carteret of his native Isle of Jersey when attacked by
the army and navy of the parliamentarians.

The Lure of Long Beach 21

In order to secure the colonization of their new and
vast property, Berkeley and Carteret, on February 10,
1664-65, signed and published ^'Concessions and Agree-
ments of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of New
Cssarea or New Jersey to and with all and every the
Adventurers and all such as shall settle or plant there.'|
Under the terms of "the Magna Charta of New Jersey,"
the government of the province became vested in a gov-
ernor, a council of not less than six or more than twelve
men to be by him chosen, and an assembly of twelve
members chosen annually by the "freemen."

As a further inducement to those in late rebellion
against the Crown to cast their lot in the New World,
one hundred and fifty acres of land was promised to such
as embarked with the first governor, provided the immi-
grant had furnished himself with "a good musket, . . .
bandiliers, and match convenient." To slaves over four-
teen years of age a plot of seventy-five acres was prom-
ised, and a similar acreage to every Christian servant
when he had completed the service of his "time."

According to a recognized authority, John White-
head, the title to the soil of New Jersey was derived
through four great sources— first, through the Indian;
then the Dutch; through Governor Nicolls, who received
the "articles of surrender" from the Dutch in 1664 ; and
lastly through the Lords Proprietors, Berkeley and Car-
teret. But behind all was the grant from King Charles,
who claimed paramount title by virtue of discovery.

On March 18, 1673-74, John Fenwick, formerly a
major in Cromwell's army, and later a Quaker, pur-

22 The Lure of Long Beach

chased from Lord Berkeley his half interest in New
Jersey. Associated with Fenwick was Edward Byllynge,
and their purpose was somewhat Utopian, in that they
planned in the New World an asylum where perfect re-
Ugious and political freedom would be established — the
first such spot on earth. But the great bugaboo of titles
that had **run with the land" from the Indian down
arose between Fenwick and Byllynge, and William
Penn, who had but recently joined the Society of
Friends, was called in to arbitrate. Penn awarded Fen-
wick one-tenth of the land and a sum of money, and to
Byllynge nine-tenths. Shortly afterward Byllynge
became involved financially and assigned his interest in
trust to William Penn, Gawen Lawry, and Nicholas
Lucas, February 10, 1674. Fenwick's tenth eventually
passed also into their control.

After the transfer of title by Berkeley the Duke of
York released to Sir George Carteret his individual
moiety of the province, which included all of New Jer-
sey north of a line drawn from Barnegat Creek, " about
the middle between Sandy Point and Cape May " (the
seacoast terminus of said line being at a point on Long
Beach near Bond's), to another creek ''next adjoyneing
to and below a certaine Creek in Delaware River called
Rankokus Kill." But this attempt at adjustment merely
served to comphcate matters, and was promptly aban-
doned.

The actual separation of the province into East and
West Jersey occurred on the 1st day of July, 1676— just
one hundred years before the Declaration of Indepen-

The Lure of Long Beach 23

dence— when a " Quintipartite Deed " was executed by
Sir George Carteret, William Penn, et al., partitioning
the territory. This deed's famous Hne, long known as
the "Province Line," extended from Little Egg Harbor
at a point two miles below Beach Haven, crossing Long
Beach to 41° 40' north latitude to the Delaware River.
Carteret was awarded East Jersey, and West Jersey was
awarded to Penn and his associates.

The reader will never know the strength of the temp-
tation resisted at this point— the temptation to write of
New Jersey as "the battle-ground of the Revolution,"—
for no State suffered more in that hardship-filled struggle
for freedom except, perhaps. South Carolina. But the
present chapter is a backward glance merely, not a history.
But a word will be permitted. When the clouds of
gloom had settled over the country at the close of that
terrible winter spent by General Washington and his
depleted and impoverished army of four thousand fam-
ished men at Valley Forge, the sun of hope beamed
once more after the skillful maneuvers at the Battle of
Trenton on December 26, 1776, and followed a week
later by the victory at Princeton.

Of two British expeditions sent out in 1778, one was
directed against Little Egg Harbor. This expedition,
after burning considerable shipping at Chestnut Neck,
on the mainland near Long Beach, landed on Osborne's
Island during the silence of night and compelled an
innocent citizen, under threat of instant death, to guide
the soldiers to Count Pulaski's encampment, near Tuck-
erton. The advancing British encountered an outpost

ff The Lure of Long Beach

of thirty Americans, and so quiet had been their march
that the Continental troops were taken completely by
surprise and butchered almost to a man, some of them
even when crying for quarter. A monument was
erected at Tuckerton a few years ago by the State of
New Jersey to Count Pulaski and his heroic soldiers.

A glimpse of the strenuousness of this early life in
the colonies is had in the heroic, fearless conduct of the
bravest woman in New Jersey's history— Molly Pitcher
—before whose monument in the Old Graveyard at
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the writer has often stood in
respectful awe and admiration.

It was in a blood-drenched New Jersey ravine near
Monmouth that Molly Pitcher won enduring glory.

"Molly Pitcher, rightly Mary Ludwig; daughter of John
George Ludwig, a German Palatine ; born in Pennsylvania,
probably at Carlisle, October 13, 1744; married John
Hays 1769, a gunner in Proctor's 1st Pennsylvania Artillery;
she followed him to the field, and when he was shot at
Monmouth she took his place; served nearly eight years
in the army ; placed on list of half-pay officers ; married
Sergeant George McCauley ; died January 22. 1823, and
was buried with military honors."

Much niore could be said of the valiant service rendered
by the patriotic residents of the mainland of New Jersey
in the vicinity of Long Beach, and of their transportation
across the sandy roads in huge, broad-tired wains, after
nightfall and in muffled silence to escape attracting the
attention of British sentinels, of many articles needed in
Philadelphia and proclaimed contraband. To be caught
meant an unceremonious "short shrift," but the sturdy
Jerseymen "took a chance," in the vernacular of today.

Captain Thomas Bond

Thompson Westcott

Historian of Philadelphia,

" Governor" of Long Beach

Ye Olden Times at Bond's Long Beach House

y ^' '/

/ yy/X

,,:<i;-^-

</

V

^

yy

/

/

^

i

yy
yy

^y

yj

'A7,j,.

■^y

y /^

Sam Shourds

Leaf from Bond's Cash Book
(jideon's Band

"Twixt you and I, I really think
It's pretty near time we had a drink,
If you belong to Gideon's Band, &c."

Caleb Parker

The thrtt lower picturei were painted by William F. Read
in 18S9, now hanging in Mr, Read's Cottage.

The Lure of Long Beach 25

V
EARLY LIFE ON THE BEACHES

MANKIND aforetime has been accustomed to
look upon the sea from an elevated point on
land, and it was not until well beyond the
middle of the nineteenth century that the low-lying
seacoast of New Jersey began to attract the inland city
dweller's attention. Early life on the mainland and
beaches of New Jersey was prosaic, colorless, and
uninteresting. Indeed, today nothing more monotonous
than isolated life on a barren beach, wind-swept, wave-
washed and neighborless, can well be imagined.

But in the early days the beaches were as an unknown
land to the inlander. They were devoid of artistic
beauty, a seemingly hopeless waste, and were the terror
of coastwise trading mariners. The wrecks that have
been strewn upon New Jersey's sands since the begin-
nings of things in the New World would fill many
modern argosies with untold riches, and will be referred
to later.

The beaches marked the shore lines of the old
counties of Monmouth, Burlington, Gloucester and
Cape May, with the mainland extending to the sea only
in that portion of Monmouth County lying between
Deal and Point Pleasant. Southward the ocean was
shut out by long, narrow strips of islands composed of
sand, and between these and the mainland lay innumer-
able salt meadow marshes, lagoons, channels and bays.

26

The Lure of Long Beach

Each generation has its own problems, and the
working out of these problems constitutes the history of
a people. The problem of turning the beaches to some
account presented itself to the pioneer, and when he saw
them covered with coarse grasses he determined to utilize
them as pasturage. Accordingly he built fiat-bottomed
scows and transported his cattle across the bays from his
mainland farm. After branding them he turned them
loose to graze and roam at will. Frequently at the
"round-up " *' strays" were missing from the flock, and
these strays in time became the progenitors of the **wild
cattle " that have been hunted and shot on Long Beach
even within the memory of men still living.

The apparently mysterious has always been a lure for
mankind's speculation, and the presence of these " wild
cattle " upon the beaches has given rise to many weird
and fanciful tales. Indeed, it is almost an offense against
tradition to explain away so simple a legend that has
been the source of much learned disputation, not only
among shore Jerseymen who have ''shot 'em and seen
'em," but among visitors of culture eager to find an un-
common topic on which to while away a seashore holiday.

Upon Long Beach in the early days was a luxuriant
growth of red cedar. Oak, gum, holly and other woods
grew on the beaches and were utilized in shipbuilding,
the manufacture of chests, casks and furniture.

But especially were these beaches the terrestrial
"happy hunting ground" of the white hunter, accom-
panied by his half-breed or negro guide. Wild fowl
were so abundant that had Baron von Munchhausen laid

The Lure of Long Beach 27

the scene of his rather marvelous duck shooting adven-
ture on Long Beach the tale might have " got by." In-
deed, there were so many shore birds that even the
apparent exaggerations of the early writers did not do
the matter justice.

In the waters were fish of all sorts "in prodigious
shoals," and oysters, clams and Crustacea were abundant
at all seasons. No matter how poor a shore dweller
might be, he was unafraid of the lone wolf, starvation,
for nature provided prodigally, and it was but for him to
reach forth his hand and take.

Whaling was one of the principal industries along the
Jersey coast in the early days, and this industry, now
abandoned, was extremely profitable. The discovery of
whales in New Jersey waters brought many New Eng-
land and Long Island whalers to the colony. And in-
deed, even today when a sick whale becomes stranded
on the Jersey coast the first impulse of the finder is to
lash it firmly to the edge of the United States, and his
second to wire some New England whaleman.

Many of the early whalers settled permanently near
Tuckerton, and their small but stanch boats patrolled
the Jersey coast from Sandy Hook to Cape May on the
lookout for the valuable leviathans of the deep. An
evidence of the importance of the industry may be cited
in the instructions sent from London July 20, 1683, to
Governor Gawen Lawry commanding him to "take
particular inspection into the conveniency of fishing
. . . especially as to the whale fishing, which we (the
Proprietaries) desire may be encouraged lest the fisher-

28

The Lure of Long Beach

men be drawn elsewhere for want of due encourage-
ment." And in West Jersey an Act was passed in 1693,
providing that all persons "who shall kill or bring to
shore any whale or whales . . . shall pay one full and
entire tenth of all the oyle and bone made out of the said
whale or whales unto the present Governor of this
Province for the time being."

Subsequently, with the introduction of steel and cellu-
loid in lieu of whalebone, and the substitution of mineral
oils, and for the reason, too, that the whales were being
exterminated, this industry along the New Jersey coast
was abandoned.

The tiller of the soil early became the dominant figure
both socially and politically in the Colonial days, and
everyone, male and female, had some knowledge of the
science of agriculture.

But comforts as we know them today were unknown.
Perhaps in all New Jersey there was not a bathtub, save
those provided by nature in the form of rivers and the
ocean. Stoves were unknown, and the boiling, frying
and stewing were done over and in front of the cavern-
like fireplace, with the smoke and odors filling the rafter-
grimed kitchens. Screens were unknown, and the now
detested fly and the festive mosquito as well revelled in
the persecution of mankind. Tallow dips and wax candles
were the luxuries of the rich, while pine knots aglow
served the poor as means of night-time illumination.

The food was of the plainest— salted meats, fish and
pork, with fresh deer and bear. Beans, potatoes, carrots,
turnips and cabbages were the staples, together with rye

The Lure of Long Beach 29

bread and milk. A few luxurious families preserved small
quantities of peaches and apples in stone jugs, but other-
wise fruits were to be had only " in season."

Work upon the farms was performed largely by three
classes of laborers — slaves, both Indian and negro; ap-
prentices, and redemptioners. These last were men and
women who had agreed to sell their labor for a term of
years in payment of their transportation from the Old
World to the New.

30

The Lure of Long Beach

VI
OLD BOND'S

FOLLOWING the Revolutionary "days that tried
men's souls " an era of comparative peace settled
over the new United States, and nature set about
her long-deferred experiment of molding from every
specimen of immigrant from Europe a distinctive nation.
And this new nation— this modern world-experiment—
has proved itself successful, and has developed aggressive
and forceful characteristics in the dwellers of the United
States that for want of a better name we term American.
Thus we have American shrewdness, American humor,'
American slang, American unconventionality, American
democracy. And in no one place is American democ-
racy more potent than at the seashore during the height
of the summer season.

John Bull makes almost a religious rite of it when
he a-bathing goes, and his solemn ponderosity as he
emerges from his bathing machine and enters the water
at any of the Old World watering places brings the
wrinkles of a smile to the face of a real American. But
on the New Jersey coast snobbery is almost unknown
among lovers of the sea, and especially on the Long
Beach section has the true spirit of cosmopolitanism
maintained its sway from the earliest days.

Seashore life in midsummer began in a small way—
as all great things do— on Tucker's Beach or Short
Beach, which is now a part of Long Beach, although

The Lure of Long Beach 31

formerly separated from that long-drawn-out island by
the old inlet, which filled up entirely in 1874, so that
men and women walked across dryshod from Long to
Short Beach. When it is recalled that even as late as
1848 this old inlet was two miles wide, and that it was
navigable for the smaller coasting vessels even up to the
year 1866, the changes wrought in the configuration of
the New Jersey coast by old ocean will be faintly realized.

Tradition has it that in the year 1800 an inlet broke
through a wooded, swampy section of Short Beach, or
Tucker's Beach, during a wild and stormy night, and
the portion thus separated from Short Beach has since
been known as Little Beach. The inlet this created is
now known as the New Inlet, and is the best and deepest
exit to and ingress from the Atlantic Ocean between Sandy
Hook and the Delaware Capes, being now two miles
wide and with a depth of fourteen feet of water at low tide.

The earliest migration of seashore visitors from the
Delaware Valley was to Long Beach, and it was on
Tucker's Beach, then a part of this island, that the sea-
shore life of the State began.

Little Egg Harbor (Tuckerton) was settled by mem-
bers of the Society of Friends in 1699. In 1704 a Friends'
Meeting was established, and beach parties on the shore,
participated in by the Quakers, their visiting kindred and
friends, began to become popular. At this period the
section of the island known as Long Beach was devoted
to the raising of horses, and the beach parties seemed to
prefer Tucker's Beach for their outings.

Reuben Tucker lived on this beach, and, after 1765,
gradually began to entertain summer guests.

^2 The Lure of Long Beach

About 1815 Joseph Horner, who for some years had
kept the Tucker House on Short Beach, removed to
Long Beach and built a house at the spot which later
became known as Bond's. This house was afterward
kept by Thomas Ivins, who was in turn succeeded by
Lloyd Jones, Jones conducted the house for a number
of years until 1844 or later. James W. Kelley, of Tuck-
erton, now 77 years of age, visited Jones' house on Long
Beach some seventy years ago, and saw scattered about
there great quantities of tea and silks salvaged from
wrecks thrown up on the coast.

Lloyd Jones built a new house, which he subsequently
sold to Captain Thomas Bond. The old house was
still standing during the boyhood days of Theophilus
T. Price, of Tuckerton, and was used as a shelter for
Bond's flock of sheep. Someone had painted the letters
Y. M. C. A. on the end of the old building.

Thomas Bond was a bachelor and was originally at-
tracted to Long Beach by the excellence of the gunning
and fishing. After purchasing the boarding house from
Lloyd Jones, Bond brought a manager from New York.
Later Lewis Stewart, of Tuckerton, who also kept the
hostelry at Tuckerton, became the manager of Bond's
house. Stewart died in 1862, after which date Mr. Bond
procured the services of a housekeeper.

The old Bond's boarding house faced the bay, at a
distance of three hundred yards. The beach at this
point was a mile wide, and bathers were conveyed across
from bay to ocean in a stage wagon driven by " Billy "
Carr, and after his death by " Billy " Crane. The young

Charles T. Parry
Dr. Samuel Ashhurst Archelaus R. Pharo

-r^ '::' * i I Hit* 1 1 , , ,

The Engleside
The Parry House

Robert B. Kn^le

The Lure of Long Beach 33

people were compelled to walk because there was not
room in the stage for all of Bond's guests. The pathway
to the ocean led over two sloughs crossed by rude
bridges, but these bridges were used by the pedestrians
only — the teams waded through.

Immediately back of the center of the boarding house
Captain Bond kept a great eagle, caged, and this eagle
screamed protest and defiance at the curious guests. Hard
by the eagle's cage was the billiard room and bowling
alley. Captain Bond himself was exceedingly fond of
euchre, and, according to Captain John Marshall, who
now lives and has lived for fifty years in Beach Haven,
and who knew and served under Captain Bond in the
Life-Saving Service for ten years, euchre was the constant
amusement of venerable Thomas Bond when fishing
or shooting could not be indulged. " Euch" was Captain
Bond's abbreviation for euchre, and, in Mr. Marshall's
words, it was " ' Euch, euch, euch' all the time, and many
thousands of games we have played together."

The life of the guests was free and easy at Bond's
house in the old days, as became such an out-of-the-way
resort. Fishing, bathing and shooting filled the daylight
hours, but the evenings laid something of a tax upon the
ingenuity of the guests, and occasionally a donkey's head
mask, attached to a shawl-covered quadruped, appeared
in the halls and brayed, greatly to the consternation of the
feminine guests, who by this sign were enabled to guess
that "the boys" were becoming hilarious.

Mr. George G. Pierie, of Philadelphia, first visited
Bond's Long Beach House in August of the year 1858,

34 The Lure of Long Beach

leaving Camden on the morning train of the Camden and
Atlantic Railroad, and arriving at the Little Egg Harbor
Inlet at eleven o'clock A. M. The sloop "Lewis Senat,"
commanded by Captain "Billie" Gaskill, of Tuckerton,
was then boarded and the voyage across the bay began.
Bond's house was reached at three in the afternoon.

Good, plain food was served, with milk and vegetables
raised on the island. Board at Bond's cost seven dollars
per week in those early days — one dollar a day. Tallow
candles furnished light at night, and no man dared appear
in a ** biled shirt." For his first offense he was tried sum-
marily by an improvised court — and was invariably con-
victed. Jersey justice was speedy indeed in those days,
and the sentence usually meted out was "settin' 'em up
to the house." Flannel shirts were the correct thing for
the male guests at Bond's, and milady was wont to be more
comfortable socially when she appeared in nothing more
expensive or elaborate than a calico or gingham wrapper.

The guests constituted a '* happy family," with the
"kickers" and "growlers" soon finding it convenient to
seek other quarters. An informal "election" was held and
Thompson Westcott, of Philadelphia, was elected " Gov-
ernor of the Island." His mandates were scrupulously
obeyed by the guests as long as Bond's house remained
open.

From the earliest days of Colonial history this section
of the Jersey seashore has been the paradise of the Nim-
rods and Ike Waltons of the eastern United States.

It was the wonderful fishing and gunning that lured
the genial Bond away from his fortune-making watch-

The Lure of Long Beach 35

case business in New York City to the nature-blessed
shores of Long Beach about the middle of the nine-
teenth century, and it was this same lure, coupled with
the "healthful aire and good climate of the Longe
Beaches," that brought his varied assortment of guests.
And well-known names appear in the array of those
who in bygone times partook of Bond's hospitality.
Indeed, at this point might be set down a list of the
pioneers of that section of Long Beach now known as
Beach Haven, and that list would be but the nucleus of
those ancient frequenters of Old Bond's.

Numbered among those honored pioneers are :

Archelaus R. Pharo Philip Dunn

Charles T. Parry Samuel Ashhurst
Dr. Edward H. Williams Walter W. Pharo

John H. Converse Thomas Sherborne

William F. Read William Burnham

John B. Parsons George G. Pierie

Charles Gibbons Dr. Albert H. Smith

And many other bearers of notable names were
guests at Bond's house in the early seashore days.
Registered there in the '40's were Bisphams, of Philadel-
phia, Alex. Harper and Lady, Lewis Blaylock (hatter)
and Jos. Budd (farmer), all of whom came to hunt and
fish, and even earlier names no less familiar are found.

If the compass of this work permitted, many interest-
ing incidents could be cited concerning members of the
"honor roll" above set forth; but for the present the
mere mention of their names must suffice ; at least until

36 The Lure of Long Beach

a proper history of this romance-filled and historically
rich section of the New Jersey coast is undertaken.

In 1871, after the completion of the Tuckerton Rail-
road, many well-known Philadelphians came to enjoy the
place, including the aforenamed pioneers. Among them
may be mentioned John Dovey, William H. Hoskins,
J. Altemus, Jos. B. Ridge, H. A. Potter and Thomas P.
Parry.

The old Bond House is gone and its relics scattered.
The dining room door was found in an old barn near the
site of the house and photographed for this book. On
it are carved, in school-boy manner but improved style,
many well-known names.

Mr. George G. Pierie, of Philadelphia, who has been
a faithful and constant summer visitor at Bond's and
Beach Haven since 1858 — a Long Beach Patriarch indeed
— while in a reminiscent mood one day early in May,
1914, said: "The fishing in the old days at Bond's was
great. Sheepshead were abundant, and on many days I
have caught fifteen and twenty in a morning. I con-
sider the fishing today at Beach Haven the surest and
best on the Jersey coast."

This is further confirmed by the following :

Extracts from The American Angler^s Book, by Thad. Norris
Philadelphia, 1864

Of all places within easy distance of our city, commend me to Long
Beach, where the accommodations are good (barring the butter), mosqui-
toes few (if the wind is not off land), and the landlord one of the most
obliging and appreciative men in the world, as to the requirements of the
angler or shooter. And, moreover, where Sammy Shourds is always on

42-Pound Drum Fish

Weak Fish

72 Pounds of Sheepshead

t ■'

^

r^

The Lure of Long Beach 37

hand. Sammy can find soft crabs when no other man can ; besides, he
knows all the fishing grounds, and when the tides suit at each ; when to
go on the flats for weakfish, when in the Cove for barb, when in the
channel for sheepshead, when to the flat, sedgy islands for rockfish, and
when to squid for bluefish. Here, according to the adjudication of the
aforesaid Sammy, a friend and myself caught with our rods in three morn-
ings (fishing four hours at each time) over five hundred pounds of weak-
fish and barb, and touched up the rockfish in the afternoon at the islands.
Page 278.

When on a visit to Long Beach in August, 1855, a brother angler and
myself had great sport with barb in the cove just below the hotel. They
had not been taken in numbers for some years, and had become compara-
tively a rare fish until we met them. In a few hours on the ebb we took
upward of three hundredweight with two rods and left off from mere
satiety, for the certainty of hooking them as fast as our bait found the
bottom ceased to be sport. Page 288.

** I have heard stories of *wild cattle* on the Beach,"
Mr. Pierie continued, *' but that was before 1858 ; and
also weird stories of * Pirates ' living on the Beach and
enticing vessels ashore and wrecking them. There was
a curious old man by the name of Caleb Parker living
at Barnegat Light House in those days, and every sum-
mer he came to Bond's to fish for sheepshead. We
called him the * Barnegat Pirate,' and he certainly looked
the part. Rumor had it that he was the only and last
descendant of the * Pirates ' that lived on the island in
1770."

An episode of these times, known as The Massacre
of Long Beach, follows :

The Long Beach Massacre took place about a mile
south of where Barnegat lighthouse now stands. October
25, 1782, a cutter from Ostend, bound for St. Thomas,

38 The Lure of Long Beach

grounded on Barnegat Shoals. She was found there by
the American privateering galley, or whaleboat, "Alliga-
tor," Captain Steelman, of Cape May, who started to
wreck her cargo and land it on the beach. It is assumed
that the residents about Barnegat and Waretown joined
in this wrecking crew, as Reuben Soper, living at Soper's
Landing, between the two villages mentioned, according
to tradition, was murdered a mile below Barnegat Inlet
on the beach by the notorious Refugee, John Bacon, in
October, 1782.

The wrecking crew had got a lot of tea and other
valuable cargo ashore and had camped out for the night
on the beach. While they were all asleep, after their
strenuous day's work in the surf. Captain John Bacon,
the Refugee leader, landed on the beach, surrounded
their camp and fired on them. Steelman was killed, and
a Tory account printed soon after claims that Bacon killed
or wounded all but four or five of the Americans. Bacon
was killed in a fight on April 3d, the next year, 1783, at
a small tavern kept by William Rose, between Weste-
cunck (West Creek) and Clamtown (Tuckerton) by Cap-
tain John Stewart, of Arneytown, Burlington County,
Joel Cook, an unnamed man, John Brown, Thomas
Smith and John Jones, who had come from near Mount
Holly to the shore with the express purpose of capturing
Bacon if possible.

Two ancient pencil sketches hung in the hall at the
old Bond House, both made by Thompson Westcott,
"Governor of Long Beach Island" and editor of the
Sunday Dispatch. One of the sketches illustrated the

The Lure of Long Beach 39

old method of reaching the Beach before the Atlantic
City Railroad was built. At that time a stage was used
from Camden to Tuckerton, and then a sailboat con-
veyed the passengers to Long Beach. As there was no
dock, the state of the tide frequently made it necessary
to use a garvie in landing, and the male passengers were
compelled to wade ashore, carrying the women on their
backs. The drawing represented this episode.

The other drawing was called ** Preparing for the
Season," and showed two mosquitoes, one turning a
grindstone, on which the other was sharpening its bill.

At this period there were no large boats used at the
Beach generally, and few larger than the present-day
sneak-boxes. Mr. Louis D. Senat, who was an ardent
gentleman sailor, designed a model for a new type of
catboat, named it the "Clam Shell," and had it built by
John Cranmer, on Liberty's Thoroughfare. When the
boat was ready the guests at Bond's were invited to go
there and paint it, and a water-color sketch was made of
the incident, and it hung for years in the hall. Liberty's
Thoroughfare was named in honor of Liberty Price,
who lived on it, and Margery's Bar, opposite the thor-
fare, was named in honor of his wife Margery, so simple
was the nomenclature of the times.

During the Revolutionary days vast quantities of sea
water were evaporated on Long Beach to obtain salt,
this being long before the discovery of salt mines in the
interior.

There were no regularly organized life-saving crews
on Long Beach in the old Bond House days, but the

40 The Lure of Long Beach

Government had erected boathouses along the beach, in
the vicinities of hotels and private residences. These
boathouses were equipped with lifeboats and life-saving
paraphernalia, but their use in time of need depended
upon volunteer life-savers living near by.

The key of one of these boathouses located near
Bond's house was kept hanging up in the bar-room.
When a ship was discovered in distress someone ran to
the bar-room, took the key from the wall, aroused the
guests and attendants into activity, and the whole com-
pany trooped to the Government boathouse. Here the
amateur life-savers procured the equipment and pro-
ceeded toward the beach, everybody telling everybody
else just how to set about rescuing passengers and crew.

In the early fifties a vessel named "The Georgia,"
with about four hundred immigrants on board, came
ashore opposite Bond's, and Captain Bond afterward told
Mr. William F. Read that the immigrants were so fam-
ished he was compelled to stand at the dining room door
armed with an axe to keep them out until the meal was
ready. This feeding of the ship's crew and passengers
was an unrewarded bit of generosity on Captain Bond's
part, for he was unable to recover the expense from the
vessel's owners, and the libel of the wreck produced but
little.

In describing a wreck near Bond's in 1860, William
F. Read, in an interview in May, 1914, said: '*In the
latter part of June of that year a hurricane came up one
afternoon and drove everybody into the hotel. You
could fairly see the wind itself, and while the guests

The Lure of Long Beach 41

were huddled together a report came from the upper
porches on the south end that a schooner was aground
about three miles off the beach.

"A rescue corps was immediately formed, the key to
the lifeboat house was secured, and the party ran as fast
as possible to the boathouse. The excitement was so
great that without waiting for the horses the volunteer
corps dragged the boat by hand, launched it, and stood
in the tumbling surf until the crew could be shipped.

"The boat reached the wreck, which was on its
beam ends with the sea breaking over it, and the crew
were in the crosstrees. All were saved, but with only
the clothes they had on their backs, and the guests hunted
out for them what other articles were required when
they reached the hotel. There was also a water-color
sketch hanging in Bond's that showed this incident, but
it has disappeared.

"About this time one of the visitors, who had been
in the South for his health, brought to the Beach the
song of 'Gideon's Band,' which became quite popular
there. The words and air were given to Mr. Dodworth,
a visitor, who was leader of the orchestra of the Arch
Street Theatre, Philadelphia, and he brought it out there
in the following autumn and popularized it generally.

" I remember that for two years at least a prominent
factor in Bond's menu was prunes in every shape and
form. A ship loaded with them came ashore and it took
several years to consume the cargo."

Old Captain Bond was one of the pioneer Life-Saving
Service captains on Long Beach, and even before the

42 The Lure of Long Beach

organization of regular life-saving crews by the Govern-
ment, Captain Bond was in the federal service, receiving
a stipend of $200 per year for looking after the Govern-
ment boathouse and Hfe-saving equipment hard by his
hotel.

A verbatim report of a wreck on the Long Beach
coast, written by Captain Bond himself, is herewith given :

"March 11, 1876.

"The Ship Ontario came on shore at 1.30 A. M.,
March 8, 1876. Weather was foggy and dark. Took
boat and mortar to scene of vessel with team. We were
obliged to wait until daylight, as we could not make out
her exact position. Answered her night signals.

"The sea was very high and tide running across the
beach. Shot one ball to ship and parted two wires ; just
as we fired mortar three boats left the ship with all her
crew.

"They could not land and went up the beach before
the wind. We fired a second ball and got a fine aboard,
but crew had all left. The crew landed two miles above,
upsetting one of their boats, but all were saved. We
boarded ship at 6 A. M., 10 A. M., and at noon.

"Ship Ontario, Captain F. Patterson, hails from
New York. Age twenty-one years. Number of persons
in crew twenty-seven. No passengers. Bound from
London to New York with general cargo. Estimated
value of cargo, $200,000. Estimated value of ship,
$140,000.

" Stranded vessel lies about two miles above Little Egg
Harbor Inlet. Mistaking of lights is supposed cause of

The Lure of Long Beach 43

wreck. Vessel has nine feet of water in hold. Amount
of insurance on vessel, $50,000.

" The morning was foggy and dark and we discovered
ship about 3 A. M. Taking with us mortar, lines and
all the apparatus needed, went to the scene of wreck
assisted by team of horses. We located the wreck by
lantern which had been left on beach by patrol. Nothing
could be seen of vessel except her lights and distress
signals. We were obliged to wait for the sea to run
down, so that we could launch a boat. We had to build
a platform to coil our line on so as to keep it out of
the water. We saw, soon as daylight made, three boats
leaving the ship.

"The mortar was fired and aline put aboard, but the
ship was deserted ; they said all left in the three boats ;
so we launched a boat and started to her, through a very
rough sea. We boarded her, but found her deserted.
The ship's boats finding they could not land drifted up
the beach and landed at a point opposite Beach Haven.
One of the boats upset while landing, but all were
rescued.

(Signed) Thomas Bond

Keeper Bond's L. S. S."

44 The Lure of Long Beach

VII
EARLY DAYS OF BEACH HAVEN

BEACH HAVEN, which is but two miles up the
beach from old Bond's, came into being because
of its being a spot particularly suited to those suf-
fering from that annoying late summer malady known
as " hay fever."

Mr. Archelaus R. Pharo, of Tuckerton, had become
a regular summer guest at Bond's on Long Beach because
of the suffering endured by his wife in her mainland home
during each successive " hay fever" season. From long
acquaintance Mr. Pharo knew Little Egg Harbor Bay
thoroughly, and his choicest rock-fishing ground was at
the points of the sedges adjoining the channel where now
stands the Beach Haven Dock. He knew the advantages
which the smaller channel behind the islands offered as
a harbor for boats, and when, largely by his personal sac-
rifices and efforts, the Tuckerton Railroad was opened in
November, 1871, his earnest desire, in which he was
faithfully seconded by his brother-in-law, Theophilus T.
Price, was to bring the railroad to the bay shore and to
have established a steamboat line to Long Beach.

In the minutes of the Tuckerton Railroad's meeting
held June 5, 1872, appears the following: "The Commit-
tee appointed — on the subject of extension to the Bay —
reported that Messrs. Pharo and Stuyvesant having agreed
to lend the Company $5000 toward building the exten-
sion, they have felt warranted in commencing the work,
which was begun on Monday, 3d inst."

Beach Haven Wharf

Hotel De Crab

Captain Tih Fox, Proprietor

One of the Original Life-Saving Stations

M

The Lure of Long Beach 45

The steamboat "Barclay," which had previously run
up Rancocas Creek, was bought, but later a new steam-
boat named the "Pohatcong" was built. When the
Tuckerton Railroad purchased locomotives in 1871 they
bought them from Burnham, Parry, Williams & Com-
pany (Baldwin Locomotive Works), and immediately
thereafter Charles T. Parry's name appeared as a member
of the Tuckerton Railroad Board of Directors. Mr.
Parry subsequently became greatly interested in Beach
Haven.

The naming of Beach Haven was brought about in
the following manner. When Mr. Archelaus R. Pharo
had purchased the beach lots and had organized the land
company, a suitable name was sought for the new town-
to-be. Various persons racked their brains without hit-
ting upon just the suitable name until Mrs. Samuel Ash-
hurst — a daughter of Mr. Pharo — thought of the two
words. Beach Haven. The combination was at once
recognized as appropriate and the name bestowed. The
comment of Dr. A. A. Willitts, a strong partisan of this
section of Long Beach, was that an **e" should be inserted
in Haven, making the new name Beach Heaven.

The actual beginning of Beach Haven as a resort
came about in 1874. In the spring of that year, follow-
ing the construction of a dock and road whereon mate-
rial could be landed and hauled, the Parry House was
built and two cottages were erected by A. R. Pharo, one
cottage for Dr. Albert Smith, of Philadelphia, and the
other for his own family.

The first patrons of the new resort happened to be

46 The Lure of Long Beach

five young men from Haverford College, who, just after
the Commencement in June, 1874, occupied the Pharo
cottage for a week while the carpenters were still putting
the finishing touches to the two cottages, and while the
Parry House was being rushed toward completion ready
for its public opening.

Lloyd Jones, upon removing from Bond's, built the
Bay View House at Beach Haven, and this hotel is now
known as the Beach Haven House. The Long Beach
Land and Improvement Company, composed largely of
pioneers heretofore named, erected the Parry House,
naming it in honor of Mr. Charles T. Parry, who was
active in the interests of the company. After the
destruction of the Parry House by fire the present Hotel
Baldwin was constructed, and this hotel was named in
honor of Matthias W. Baldwin, the builder of the first
effective steam locomotive in Pennsylvania, and the
founder of the great Baldwin Locomotive Works.

Robert B. Engle operated the Parry House for the
Land Company during the first year, and became the
lessee during the second. In 1875, together with his
cousin, Samuel T. Engle, he purchased a square of land
near by, and on the first of January, 1876, began the
erection of the Engleside Hotel. In 1884 Robert B.
Engle bought out Samuel T. Engle's interest and operated
the Hotel alone until 1890, when his son, Robert F.
Engle, began taking an active part in the management.
Robert B. Engle died in May, 1901, and the following
year the Hotel property was incorporated under the

The Lure of Long Beach 47

title of "The Engleside Company," of which Robert F.
Engle is manager.

Both the New Hotel Baldwin and the Engleside are
numbered among the high-class hotels- — in newspaper
parlance, " Beach-front Palaces " — along the New Jersey-
coast.

And, indeed, at any of the resorts scattered from end
to end of Long Beach the inland toiler will find absolute
change of scene, the comforts of home, and an atmos-
phere imbued with coolness and restfulness.

True seashore rest is the antithesis of the fatigue and
weariness produced by man's or woman's participation in
the toil and stress of his or her own particular phase of
the world's work. And the truly restful bit of seashore
is that where the flippant, tantalizing and fictitious so-
called "amusements" are absent. Ancient merry-go-
rounds with wheezy organs are out of place beside the
majestic solitudes of old ocean; screeching vaudeville
^'queens" should be voiceless within sound of the breakers'
roar, and claptrap "shows" and mendicant "fakirs" are
out of place where men and women gather for rest from
year-round work and city "attractions." "Back to na-
ture ! " — and nature unspoiled welcomes the sons and
daughters of men to Long Beach.

Hotels inferior to none on the New Jersey coast are
scattered along this magnificent beach, and the every-day
comforts and luxuries of life are immediately at hand;
but it is in the wonderfully lavish array of nature-pro-
vided seashore diversions that Long Beach excels.

As previously set forth early in this sketch, it takes

48 The Lure of Long Beach

a long time for a new idea to break through the cra-
niums of human beings, and the selection of a good sum-
mer fishing ground seems to be one of those slow-
moving ideas that mankind finds hard to assimilate.
This may be due in large part to the false advertisements
spread broadcast about marvelous fishing to be found
here and there — in the Canadian Lakes, in the Maine
woods, and other distant spots — by companies having
transportation to sell. Consequently the summerite,
having tried many of these much-advertised spots, is
skeptical about real fishing grounds nearer to Philadel-
phia even than Atlantic City. But old Captain Bond
knew ; George G. Pierie knows ; and many other well-
known Philadelphians, including J. S. Ivins, who spends
practically the entire summer of every year aboard his
yacht in Beach Haven waters, know. If space per-
mitted, their personal and enthusiastic testimonials
would be printed here.

Long Beach is indisputably New Jersey's Mecca for
fishermen, and the lover of Spanish mackerel, the Blue-
fish, the Butterfish, the Striped Bass, the Weakfish, or
the Croaker, will find himself on ideal fishing grounds
along this section of the coast.

^

-,-.«';=£^4'^

4.

New Hotel Baldwin
Harvey Cedars Hotel
Spray Beach Hotel

T. he Engleside
The Breakers

^2-^J*^i

^- ^

■^- I.

23

03

The Lure of Long Beach 49

VIII
LONG BEACH RESORTS

IN the early days, after the opening of the Camden
and Atlantic Railroad in 1857, it was the custom of the
Long Beach pioneers to visit their favorite seashore
spot by way of Atlantic City. In 1857 a favorite rende-
vouz for these "old-timers" was Bedloe's Hotel in At-
lantic City, and a boat running from there had Captain
William (Billie) Gaskill for skipper. A few years after-
ward a small steamer called " The Wave " was tried, but
was soon abandoned on account of its being unable to
use salt water. Captain Gaskill then re-commissioned
his sloop and maintained communication between the
resorts for many years.

Old-timers agree that the first spot settled on Long
Beach was at the " Great Swamp" (now Harvey Cedars),
which was well sheltered and wooded a hundred years
ago. A number of families removed to this lonely sec-
tion just after the closing of the war of 1812, but no
record is to be found of the time at which the first house
was erected. These families lived principally by the
whaling industry then carried on along the New Jersey
coast.

James Cranmer's house at Great Swamp was the
house of entertainment, and remained such until the
Mansion of Health was built in 1822. The "Mansion"
is described as having been "a large house one hundred
and twenty feet long, and about one-tenth of a mile from

50 The Lure of Long Beach

the sea, well kept, and supported by a goodly number
of inmates." As this description was written in the year
1823, the twentieth century reader will accept the word
"inmates " in its originally intended signification.

A short distance from the Mansion of Health, and
nearer the beach, stood a pole or mast with many holes.
Through these holes round sticks had been driven, and
the protruding ends served as a ladder. The "whale-
watch" mounted this mast in order to descry whales
swimming along the coast. When one was discovered
the whaling crews were hastily summoned and great ex-
citement and bustle prevailed in the little settlement, es-
pecially among the wives and daughters and sweethearts
of the crews.

When captured the whale was towed ashore and cut up
on the beach, while the great streams of its blood flowed
down to the water and reddened the surf for hundreds of
yards up and down the coast. The news traveled fast, and
curious men and women from all the shore villages
hastened to the strand to view the monster and to sniff
and hold their noses as the cutting-up process proceeded.

In 1857 the Mansion of Health was a ruin and the
sand had drifted all around it, but Harvey Cedars was
quite a resort in those days. Samuel Perrine, an old-time
beacher, kept the house of entertainment at Harvey
Cedars, and on one occasion William F. Read visited
Perrine's house in company with a sailing party from
Bond's. One of the visitors asked the old man whether
he had any good brandy — he generally had, from French
wrecks — but in this case the host answered: " Yes, Josie,

The Lure of Long Beach 51

some of the best thee ever drinked." " Where did you
get it, Sammy?" '* I bought it in New York and paid
seven shillings the gallon." "All right, Sammy, give me
some of your apple whisky," said Josie.

Barnegat City, which is at the extreme northern end
of Long Beach, is seven feet higher above tide level than
the other portions of the island, and is noted for its
majestic bay and ocean views. A sunset on Barnegat
alone is worth traveling many miles to see.

Barnegat City is a borough, and the municipal limits
extend southward about two miles from the inlet. It
was founded in 1881 by the Barnegat City Beach Associ-
ation. The company sold a number of lots, and two
hotels and about twenty cottages were erected. In
recent years, because of the increase in automobile travel
among seashore tourists and because no direct auto-
mobile road led to the resort, there has been little im-
provement save in the grading of streets and general
preparation for the new life that is being infused into all
Long Beach resorts due to the building of the new
bridge from the mainland to the island.

Immediately south of Barnegat City is Harvey Cedars,
and in the olden days Harvey Cedars was quite famous
in its way. High Point is included within the limits of
the borough of Harvey Cedars, and is a new and grow-
ing settlement. Near the Harvey Cedars Hotel is
located the big bungalow owned by Mr. W. H. Sayen,
of Philadelphia. This bungalow is almost as well known
today as was Brigantine Beach in its palmy days, and
for a like reason — Pennsylvania politicians. The Sayen

52 The Lure of Long Beach

bungalow at Harvey Cedars is the rendevouz of many-
notables in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania politics of the
present time.

Tradition has it that there was a whaling station at
Harvey Cedars in the good old days, and one descendant
of a whaler tells today of his father having helped to kill
two whales in one day at this point.

The first beginnings of a house of entertainment at
Harvey Cedars was the boarding house built by Samuel
Perrine some years before 1873. It was this Sammy
Perrine Mr. William F. Read had in mind in connection
with the "best brandy thee has ever drinked" story
earlier in this sketch.

Next down the beach from Harvey Cedars is Surf
City. The original name of this resort, founded in 1873,
was Long Beach City, but the similarity of the name
with that of Long Branch caused much confusion in
mails, freights and express, and the name was changed
to Surf Cit}^

The old Mansion of Health, the pioneer of Long
Beach hostelries, was located near the present site of
Surf City, and was built there in the early days because
the founders decided the location — which is the point of
land farthest east on the island — was the most healthful.

The resort has some fine cottages, a good hotel, an
ocean boulevard eighty feet in width, and an artesian
well 564 feet deep. The municipality has been incor-
porated into a borough, and has a Town Hall, with
school rooms and offices, and a large pavilion equipped
with bathrooms. The water from the artesian well is

The Lure of Long Beach 53

devoid of all minerals prejudicial to health, and has been
reported by the State Board of Health as being one of
the purest waters analyzed in the State of New Jersey.

At Barnegat Junction the railroad line from the
mainland divides, one spur extending northward through
Surf City, Harvey Cedars, High Point and Club House
to Barnegat City, while the southern spur runs through
Arlington Beach, Ship Bottom — the Siasconsett of Long
Beach Island — Brant Beach, Beach Haven Crest, Pea-
hala. Beach Haven Terrace, Spray Beach and North
Beach Haven to Beach Haven, the terminus.

The new boulevard, upon entering Long Beach,
first strikes Arlington Beach, one of the newer settle-
ments, lying immediately south of Barnegat City Junc-
tion and adjoining Ship Bottom on the south.

During a severe storm in the early days a clipper
ship, steering her course by the Barnegat light, ran
ashore on the sands of Long Beach, and, tossed by giant
billows, was cast bottom upward upon the beach near a
small hamlet. And thus it was that Ship Bottom re-
ceived its name. Here, too, the gallant Italian sailing
vessel "Fortuna" was driven ashore in a terrific storm
during the winter of 1909-10, but the life-savers of the
Ship Bottom Station rescued all on board, including even
a pig and a cat, after a desperate struggle. Long Beach
Island at Ship Bottom is no wider than the length of two
or three city blocks, with the Atlantic Ocean on the east and
magnificent Barnegat Bay a stone's throw toward the west.

Many interesting yarns could be spun — indeed, many
have already been spun, some of them highly colored —

54 The Lure of Long Beach

about Ship Bottom and the wrecks and salvages of its ro-
mance and tragedy filled history, but space limits preclude.

Brant Beach is the resort immediately south of Ship
Bottom, and today is a tidy, dainty cottaged little resort
set out upon the clean white sands beside the boundless
sea, and within a gunshot of both the Atlantic Ocean
and Manahawkin Bay. Hard by are great sand dunes
that cause the admirer of the well-beloved Robert Louis
Stevenson to turn mentally to his weird and rather sad
tale of the Pavilion on the Links. Remarkable develop-
ment has been made at Brant Beach within the last few
years, and it possesses all the attributes of a real seashore
resort.

Next below Brant Beach is Beach Haven Crest, a
summer resort partaking of the good things in store for
all Long Beach towns.

Peahala, the site of the famous clubhouse, is the next
station down the beach. The Peahala Club of Long
Beach was organized on April 10, 1882. The greater
part of the property, which is now owned by the Peahala
Club, was formerly owned by Captain Tommy Jones, of
Long Beach. Since the Club purchased the land the
present clubhouse has been erected. The old house,
which was used as a haven for hunters during the time
of Captain Jones, has been demolished.

Beach Haven Terrace is an energetic, hustling young
municipality on old Long Beach, and boasts of a per-
manent winter population, two cottage hotels — the
**Clearview" and the 'Xhalfonte" — a bakery, stores,
waterworks and post office.

The Lure of Long Beach 55

Beach Haven Terrace is famous in that it was the
home for many years of Captain " Billy " Crane, who was
captain, during a long and useful life, of the U. S. Life-
Saving Station located here.

All seaside resorts have one natural and inevitable
center of interest — the ocean front. But Beach Haven
Terrace, and, indeed, every resort on the twenty-three
miles of Long Beach Island, is doubly favored in that
it has the broad expanse of Barnegat Bay behind, with
all that this implies in fishing, safe sailing, bathing and
every form of real seashore recreation.

Below Beach Haven Terrace is Spray Beach, the
summer home of John Luther Long, playright and
author of Madame Butterfly. Spray Beach was originally
part of Waverly Beach, and was formerly known as Cran-
berry Hill, because here the luscious cranberry once
grew in riotous profusion. In 1890 this tract of land
was purchased by W. S. Ringgold and J. L. Long. The
same year the tract was graded and three cottages were
built, one of which was the modest beginning of Spray
Beach Hotel.

In 1891 the hotel was opened under. the management
of Cornelius Dubois, and in 1893 it passed into the
hands of William L. Ringgold. In 1894 it became the
property of William S. Ringgold. In 1903 the hotel was
greatly enlarged, and in 1908, after Mr. Ringgold's death,
was sold to the present owner, Augustus L. Keil, under
whose management the hostelry was completely reno-
vated, while the service has been steadily improved.

A number of attractive and substantial cottages have

56 The Lure of Long Beach

been erected and the thriving little community has a
bright future. Long Beach Island is very narrow at
this point — but a pebble's cast from the ocean boulevard
to either ocean or bay.

North Beach Haven is the next resort down the
beach, and is virtually a part of Beach Haven proper. It
partakes of all the lavish endowments nature has bestowed
upon Long Beach Island, and is the thriving nucleus of
a rapidly growing community. It is bounded on two
sides by the Atlantic Ocean and Manahawkin Bay, and
abounds in every sane facility for the real enjoyment of
summer life by the edge of the sea.

"The Breakers," a large hotel formerly known as
" Dolphin Inn," is located at North Beach Haven, and
this hostelry caters to a large and growing clientele of
summer residents. Many modern cottages have been
erected here in recent years, and the resort is but entering
upon its real era of prosperity and growth.

At the extreme southern terminus of the railroad line
lies Beach Haven — the hay-feverless resort of the Jersey
coast. The borough of Beach Haven is progressive
and modern in its tendencies and alert to the advance-
ment of the times. A huge gas plant supplies the illu-
mination at the present time, and an electric lighting
franchise has been granted by the municipal authorities.

The purest of water is supplied for domestic purposes
from an artesian well 575 feet in depth. The resort has
graded schools, broad, graded streets, and a great number of
magnificent seashore cottage homes. It has, in addition, the
largest motor car garage on the seacoast of New Jersey.

Board Walk, Beach Haven

Surf Fishing, Spray Beach

Sports on the Beach

Maryland Avenue, Beach Haven Terrace, with Life-Saving Station

Ship Bottom Life-Sa\'in(r Station

Pennsylvania Railroad Station, Brant Beacli

The Lure of Long Beach 57

The fleet of pleasure yachts for hire at the Beach
Haven Yacht Club is greater in number than the Atlantic
City fleet, although not including boats as large as some
of the latter resort's pleasure craft.

Two magnificent beach-front hotels — the New Hotel
Baldwin and the Engleside — afford the best of appoint-
ments and cuisine, and both are built within a short
hundred yards of the breeze-swept, tumbling ocean.
There are, in addition, a number of desirable and well-
conducted smaller hotels.

Beach Haven is the modern Ike Walton's paradise
par excellence, and its merits as the choice hook-and-
line fishing ground of the Eastern United States are be-
, coming better known with each succeeding season.
I Lawn tennis is a favorite sport at Beach Haven, and
many professional and amateur matches are played on
the well-kept courts of both the Engleside and the
New Hotel Baldwin every summer.

The surf bathing here is unexcelled at any New
Jersey seashore resort, and with the combination of
ocean and bay, bathing and fishing, and land and aquatic
sports. Beach Haven takes rank as the leading real sea-
shore resort of the Atlantic seaboard.

58 The Lure of Long Beach

IX
LONG BEACH RECREATIONS

IN these prolific newspaper advertising days, when
laws commanding advertisers to tell only the truth
are being passed, the average reader is skeptical, very
skeptical. He is much harder to impress than was that
delightfully credulous old lady who vowed that anything
appearing in print must be true. And oftentimes, to his
own loss, he becomes so utterly distrustful that simple
truth can find no lodgment in his mind. This reader has
gone to the opposite extreme and is hopeless. But the
great majority of the reading public are able to discern
the stamp of truth, and to these, with their open and un-
prejudiced minds, the following brief sketch of modern
seashore attractions to be found on Long Beach Island
is addressed.

The bathing beach at Beach Haven and other Long
Beach resorts diff^ers from the beaches of all other Jersey
coast watering places, and is a happy "combination be-
tween the steep, dangerous beaches of northern New
Jersey and the low, shelving shores of Cape May."
Bathing here is as safe as it is exhilarating.

Barnegat Bay extends southward between Long
Beach Island and the mainland and joins Manahawkin
and Little Egg Harbor Bays, making a complete chain of
salt water bays along the entire length of the island. This
inland body of ever-changing tidal salt water is the pro-
tection against the torrid mainland winds of summer, and

The Lure of Long Beach 59

is the direct cause of the lower temperature enjoyed on
Long Beach the summer through. The bay here is
some six miles wide, and with Beach Haven "six miles
at sea," the reader can readily understand the reason for
its coolness. No body of water along the Atlantic sea-
board is so well known for its advantages and wonderful
resources as Barnegat Bay.

The name Barnegat is of Dutch origin, and from the
Dutch word Barendegat, signifying Breakers Inlet. The
Barnegat Inlet has always been noted for the dangerous
breakers on its bar.

But the bay itself is calm, and the most timid can en-
joy sailing and boating. The yachting course here is ex-
celled by no other in the country, and steady, safe breezes
always blow. With the opening of the new automobile
bridge across the bay the sport of yachting in this section
will spread rapidly and will draw many gentleman sailors
from all parts of the United States and Canada. The
magnificent cruisers and pleasure yachts from New York
and New England, and from Atlantic City and the South-
ern States, will be able to sail down or up the safe Inland
Waterway to the best yachting rendezvous on the coast,
and into the very heart of the realm of fishdom at the
same time.

To the angler Barnegat Bay is the fisherman's para-
dise. Thousands upon thousands of toothsome weakfish
are caught here daily. The gamey bluefish is abundant
in these waters and many other varieties of scrappy, fish-
ermen-fighting fish.

Oysters, clams, crabs and all manner of shellfish

60 The Lure of Long Beach

abound on the shores, and in the fall and winter wild
ducks, geese, brant and other waterfowl gather here in
great profusion. In short, this section of Long Beach is
the sportsman's paradise.

But to some anglers the thrilling delights of surf
fishing are the peak-points of seashore happiness. Surf
fishing was introduced to Beach Haven in 1907 by Mr.
Charles E. Gerhard and his wife, who, by the way, takes
almost as active a part in this most delightful of sports as
does Mr. Gerhard himself.

Beach Haven stood aghast one summer morning in
1907 to see Mr. and Mrs. Gerhard, attired in bathing
suits and armed with rods and reels, wade out into the
surf and cast. But when, after a hard thirty-minute fight,
a huge twenty-pound channel bass (or drum fish) was
brought ashore by Mrs. Gerhard, Beach Haven awoke
to the possibilities of its surf fishing.

The surf anglers have increased in number every sum-
mer since 1907, and in 1913 the rod and reel offered as a
prize for the largest channel bass caught in the surf was
won by Mr. Holt, who landed a monster weighing
fifty-six pounds.

Since surf fishing has been introduced in Beach Haven
Mr. Gerhard has caught, among hundreds of other fish,
one pompano, a warm water, Florida coast denizen, that
apparently journeyed northward in the current of the
Gulf Stream. The pompano constitutes the piece de
resistance among Florida table fish.

Visitors who have fished for the leaping tuna near
Santa Catalina Island contend that such a journey is

I

The Lure of Long Beach 61

useless merely to indulge in tuna fishing, for the leaping
tuna abound in Beach Haven waters just off shore a mile
or more. Tuna weighing as much as one thousand
pounds have been caught in pound nets at this resort,
but the heaviest ever taken by hook and line weighed
680 pounds. The local fishermen call the leaping tuna
"horse mackerel," and because of this confusion of
names the tuna has not been recognized nor fished for
in Beach Haven waters to any great extent. But he
is attracting attention now, and the present and future
summers will find numbers of leaping tuna fishermen in
the waters of the resort.

The Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club is one of the most
flourishing of the present-day Beach Haven social and
yachting organizations. This club started from very
humble beginnings on July 13, 1912. Elmer Widener,
the founder, started to build a miniature dock for his 12-
foot sneak-box, ''TheTonik." A few boys gathered
about and wanted to share the dock. A club was in-
formally formed, and it grew. Now it has a roster of
sixty-five boats, some of them costing ten thousand dol-
lars and over, has one hundred and ten members, is still
growing, and is about to build a fine new clubhouse.

The Club has a Ladies' Auxiliary, and in getting up
its racing meets does not slight the ladies. Always
when sneak-box races are arranged for the boys a similar
event is carded for the girls, and the sight of a breeze-
bent sneak-box, manned by a school girl, cutting through
the choppy waves toward the stake boat on a blowy
afternoon is one of the inspiriting sights of Beach
Haven aquatic activity.

62 The Lure of Long Beach

The Beach Haven Yacht Club is an organization
composed of men who make a business of hiring out
their boats and their skill, and their knowledge of the
fishing grounds, to visitors. And here the inland visitor
who loves the sport of old Ike Walton, but who has
not had time to develop himself as a navigator, will find
careful, courteous men always ready to take him for a
sail or on a fishing expedition.

This club is composed of some seventy sail, and was
organized by Charles Gibbons, Jr., about 1880. The
required qualifications for membership are competency,
temperate habits, and pride and industry enough to keep
yachts in seaworthy condition, the hulls neatly painted,
sails trim, and proper facilities for the accommodation
and comfort of tourists, fishers and pleasure seekers. The
boats average 25 to 35 feet over all, and draw enough
water to keep them steady in all kinds of weather. Not
an accident has happened to any of the boats since the
club's organization — an amazing and wonderful record.

The launches running from Atlantic City land their
passengers at the Beach Haven Club's dock, and these
boats run on regular schedules during the summer
months. Such schedules were impossible before the
deepening of the inside channels by the New Jersey
Waterways Commission, but much progress has been
made since the work was started in 1907, and now boats
of moderate draught may run at any stage of tide from
Beach Haven southward to Cape May, or northward to
Barnegat City and Bay Head.

The Parker Brothers, of Tuckerton, are the pioneers

The Lure of Long Beach 63

of the present boat line service between Beach Haven
and Atlantic City, and later Captain John L. Bailey, of
Atlantic City, established a passenger line between the
two resorts, immediately after the completion of the
Inland Waterway. This line affords comfortable service
between the two resorts, leaving Atlantic City in the
morning, and leaving Beach Haven, on the return trip,
in the afternoon. The other line completes the present-
day waterway transportation facilities by leaving Beach
Haven for Atlantic City in the morning, and, returning,
leaving Atlantic City in the afternoon.

These boats traverse Little Egg Harbor Bay, Great
Bay, Little Bay, Grassy Bay, and the different old-time
and new Inland Waterway channels en route, and pass
close by the great wireless tower of the German gov-
ernment — the tallest structure of its kind in the world — on
the mainland near Tuckerton. This is a delightful and
safe inland water trip, and is becoming more and more
popular as a summer day recreation for both Atlantic
City and Beach Haven visitors as the years go by.

64 The Lure of Long Beach

X

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

STRONGER and stronger become man's indo-
lence and desire to ride as civilization advances,
until in the present day of the human race it is
found necessary to have medical men and physical cul-
turists advise us when to play and exercise. The man
who can run a hundred yards in anything like a reason-
able time in the year 1914 is a hero, and the wonderful
speed machines given to men and women by nature are
permitted to rest in a rocking chair, to loll on a piazza,
or to recline lazily in a shaded hammock.

Walking was man's first and surest means of locomo-
tion, and in the early days of Long Beach the Indians of
the interior walked with their squaws and families from
Coaquanock (Philadelphia) and other inland points to
the shore at Long Beach for their seashore summer ex-
cursions ; feasted, fished and hunted the summer through ;
and returned once more on foot in the fall. That they
feasted upon the clams, oysters and other Crustacea of
the seashore is evidenced by the huge deposits of clam
and other shells found in different sections of the adja-
cent shore today, notably near the site of the great wire-
less tower at Tuckerton.

Great piles of clam shells ten to twelve feet deep,
many of the individual shells chipped and worn in the
process of making wampum, are found today at Tuck-
erton and other nearby spots, marking the places where
the red man banqueted and coined his money.

Gunnino; on the Beach

The Lure of Long Beach 65

The Indian's visits marked the first beginnings of sea-
shore travel. First, he walked. Eventually he attached
two poles to a pony, their ends dragging on the ground,
and with this rude means of transportation his offspring
were provided for. But Madam Indian, as well as the
brave himself, still walked, and, hanging from the squaw's
shoulders and arms as she marched with the single-filed
procession through the Jersey pines and across the white
sands to their inland winter quarters, were great strings
of dried clams. This homeward march marked the close
of the summer's seashore outing, and the squaw bore the
burden of the winter edibles.

Then came the white man to the shore, and his civ-
ilization had advanced him to the use of wains, and then
stage coaches ; and this form of transportation continued
until the year 1857.

Then for the first time in the history of the New
Jersey coast a locomotive whistle shrieked to the ac-
companiment of the breakers' roar, bringing terror to
the waterfowl and other wild natives of the salt water
marshes. Man advanced his method and his speed, and
presently was being whirled from city to shore at the
rate of sixty miles an hour in the soothing luxury of a
Pullman car.

But the seashore visitor has gone beyond even the
luxury of a Pullman. Trains are too democratic in these
days and too many people, merely because they are able
to purchase transportation, are permitted to ride. For
seclusion and for comfort the motorcar is the thing, and
today the tourist to the sea sits restfuUy back against

66 The Lure of Long Beach

the deeply upholstered cushions while the chauffeur
peers ahead through his goggles and hopes no careless
Jerseyman will wander into the road to mar the paint
or leave a dent in the shining body of the car. A
whirr, a whizz, and milady has been transported from
her luxurious city home to an equally luxurious Long
Beach hotel. And this has been made possible by the
completion and opening to the world of the new auto-
mobile bridge across the Bay from Manahawkin to
Long Beach Island.

In the days of the long ago Spanish galleons, laden
with the bullion, gold, silver and other wealth contributed
by the Mexican and South American colonies, passed
along the Jersey Coast on their way home to Spain. These
large, old-time sailing vessels were armed, usually had
three or four decks, with bulwarks three to four feet
thick, and with stem and stern built up high like castles.
They were the choice prey of Drake and other rovers
of the Elizabethan age, and many richly laden galleons
setting out from the New World never reached the Old.

Some were cast away on the shoals of Barnegat, and
many specimens of ancient coins have been washed
ashore and found on the sands of Long Beach, particu-
larly in the Old Inlet section, below the old Bond
House. Indeed, for the past fifty years, down to the
present, visitors to Long Beach have been finding these
ancient coins on the sands. When discovered they are
black in color, and are usually elevated upon a tiny
mound of sand like a golf tee, the winds having blown
the loose sand grains away, leaving only those retained

The Lure of Long Beach 67

in place by the pressure of the coin. As many as 500
different pieces have been found in one day along the
Long Beach shore, with dates ranging from 1682 to
1795. But the coins seem to be found only after a
storm and hard blow in some particular direction, the
theory being that a given direction of the ocean current
stirs up the bottom of the sea where the ancient wealth
lies and, the wind being right, washes the coins ashore.

Ancient piastres, or pieces of eight in the Romance
languages, have been washed up on the sands, particularly
at the Old Inlet and at Ship Bottom near Barnegat City
Junction. The piastre was an old Spanish coin worth
about four English shillings, and was divided into eight
silver reals, hence was termed a piece of eight, the name
invariably applied to it on the Spanish Main.

Old-timers on Long Beach maintain stoutly that Cap-
tain Kidd or some other and worthy "captain of indus-
try" of those early days once visited Long Beach for the
purpose of depositing treasure. And this legend has a
gleam of truth thrown over it by the accounts of Captains
S. E. Holdzkom and John Marshall, both of Beach
Haven.

The story runs that about twenty-five or thirty years
ago two lone mariners came in from the sea in a sloop.
Anchoring a mile or more from shore, they proceeded
toward the Little Egg Harbor Inlet in their yawlboat.
They hailed the life-saving crew at the Little Egg Har-
bor Life-Saving Station, and were taken in and fed.
During the conversation the strangers casually asked the
location of ** The Two Cedars," and whether the Old

68 The Lure of Long Beach

Lighthouse near by was still standing. When the life-
saving crew left the station for the night beach patrol the
two sailors betook themselves to a point between "the
two cedars" and the lighthouse site, and were descried
by the lookout at dawn the next morning. When first
seen through the glasses they were digging furiously, and
had uncovered a huge iron-bound chest of ancient make.
The alarm was given and the crew started for the scene.
But the two men of the sea bundled their find and them-
selves into the yawl and made off for the sloop. Making
sail at once, they stood out to sea and were soon beyond
sight and pursuit.

Upon arriving at "the two cedars," the now observant
beach guards discovered letters and ancient markings cut
deep into the bark of both trees. They also found the
iron chest, an old and rusted cutlass the wayfaring mari-
ners had unearthed, and some ancient coins. The cut-
lass was preserved and is now kept as a relic of bygone
days in the office of the Superintendent of Life-Saving
Stations at Asbury Park.

In the early days, before the great steamships of
modern times plied between the Old and the New
World in comparative safety, travel was mainly in the
clipper ships of our forefathers, and these ships, be-
coming unmanageable in a storm, frequently came
ashore on Barnegat Shoals — the ships' graveyard of the
Atlantic Coast — or farther down the line of Long Beach.
These shoals have long been recognized by the Gov-
ernment as most dangerous to shipping, and a light-
house 184 feet high maintains near Barnegat City a

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The Lure of Long Beach 69

white flash light whose beams can be seen many miles
at sea.

Indeed, the necessity for lighthouses, which are tall
and substantial buildings erected on conspicuous parts
of the coast from which a light is shown at night to
guard mariners, and which serve as landmarks by day,
was the real beginning of the modern settlements on
Long Beach Island. Keepers of the lighthouses were
obliged to reside on the island ; friends came to visit
them from time to time ; the resources of Long Beach
became known ; men established summer homes there,
and finally many removed to the island to live through-
out the year.

There are seven Government Life-Saving Stations on
the Long Beach Island coast at the present time, as
follows :

No. 17, at Barnegat Inlet.

No. 18, at Lovelady's.

No. 19, at Harvey Cedars.

No. 20, at Ship Bottom.

No. 21, at Beach Haven Terrace.

No. 22, at Bond's.

No. 23, at Little Egg Harbor Inlet.

These Life-Saving Stations, manned by the pick of
skillful and brave seafaring men, save many lives and
much valuable shipping annually, and the records of
their stations are filled with material rich in literary,
romantic and dramatic value. And the yarns these
worthies can and do spin would fill many readable and
worth-while volumes.

70 The Lure of Long Beach

XI
RETROSPECTION AND CONCLUSION

THE first patent granted for Long Beach lands at
Harvey Cedars was issued in 1690, and included
the area from the Great Swamp to the Club
House, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Main Bay-
Channel. Here whalers and their families established
themselves and named the settlement Harvey's WhaHng
Quarters. Early names of the settlement were Inman,
Rutter, Mullin, Cranmer and Stevens.

During the summer they brought their fleet of ves-
sels through Cranberry Inlet (Barnegat Inlet was not then
opened through to the sea) and down the bay to Har-
vey's Whaling Quarters. Each vessel was manned by a
crew of eight to ten men, and the decks were covered
with barrels. Finally the whaling business assumed such
proportions that the crews and their families remained
on the island throughout the year, and when this trans-
pired the name was changed to Harvey's Hommock.

Ninety-nine years ago Sylvanus Cox, a squatter, built
a house at Harvey's Hommock, and the name was again
changed, this time to Harvey Cedars. Cox later sold
the house to Samuel Perrine, with whom the reader is
already acquainted. Perrine built some additional rooms,
called his place the Harvey Cedars Hotel, and conducted
it for a number of years. He sold it eventually to Gran-
ville Stokes, Newell Ridgway and Isaac Jennings. The
hotel's clientele increased rapidly under Jennings' man-

The Lure of Long Beach 71

agement, and upon his death David M. White was in-
stalled as manager. Several years after Jennings' death
the hotel property was transferred to the late William J.
Thompson, **The Duke of Gloucester," of Glouces-
ter, N. J.

In 1877 William and John Smith, of Brown's Mills,
N. J., built the Atlantic House at Harvey Cedars, and
this hostelry was managed by Howard Lukens for a
number of years until destroyed by fire.

Many tales of the **Barnegat Pirates" have attained
the antiquity of legends on Long Beach, but their veri-
fication is another matter. One of the favorite stories
is to the effect that in the **good old days," when legiti-
mate wrecks along Long Beach were too few, the ** pi-
rates" would hang a lantern to a mule's neck and parade
the animal along the beach in the darkness of midnight.
Mariners at sea, seeing the slowly moving light, would
assume it to be that of a ship, and would deem it safe
to venture nearer shore. The result would be a wreck,
and loot for the "pirates." It is a beautifully simple old
legend, and important if true.

Another pirate tale is that of a number of these
beach-combers rowing out to the wreck of the sloop
''Adelaide," owned and captained by James Lamson, of
Cedar Run. The craft was overturned, and when the
pirates reached the hull they heard a noise within.
With an axe they cut a hole through the bottom and
rescued the captain's little daughter Edith. The child
had been caught in a partition in the cabin and hung

72 The Lure of Long Beach

with her head barely above water. All the rest of the
ship's company were lost.

The Hotel De Crab, a Beach Haven landmark, for-
merly one of the first U. S. Life-Saving Stations on the
Island of Long Beach, was erected in the early days of
that resort by Captain Tilt Fox and James Kelly, and
the new house of entertainment was given the name
"Hotel De Crab" by Colonel Gray and George C. Pierie,
who happened to visit the island at the time, having
sailed up the bay from Toad Hall, a small shanty near
Bond's.

The original Parry House at Beach Haven was lo-
cated on Center Street, northward from the present site
of the Hotel Engleside. Soon after the Parry House
burned down Mr. Parry erected a small hotel known as
the "Arlington Inn." At the expiration of a year he
enlarged the Arlington Inn and changed the name to
the " Baldwin Hotel," now known as the '* New
Hotel Baldwin." Subsequently the Engleside Hotel
was built, and this was followed by the Beach Haven
House, the Ocean House, the Dolphin Inn and the
Spray Beach House.

On July 7, 1874, Captain '* Billie " Gaskill, of Tuck-
erton, inaugurated and maintained for thirteen summers
the first boat line between Tuckerton and Long Beach.
During these years the boats ** Pohatcong," *' Avabell "
and "Berkeley" were in commission, and an old-time
Tuckerton resident named John Smith drove a stage-
coach from the Tuckerton wharf to Camden, trans-
porting Philadelphians to and from the shore.

The Lure of Long Beach 73

The stoutest heart would quail before the tales of
terrible shipwreck along the Long Beach coast if these
stories could be inserted here. Some 400 or 500 ships
have gone down near this beach since the early days,
and perhaps many more of which no record was ever
made.

Notable among the catastrophes was the wreck of
the ** Powhatan," a clipper immigrant ship, which went
down in a terrific snow storm off the Long Beach coast,
about two miles above Little Egg Harbor (old) Inlet, on
April 16, 1854, carrying 365 souls to a watery grave.
A heavy sea was running when the vessel struck, and
she broke up rapidly beneath the terrific pounding of
the waves. Many bodies were later washed ashore, and
much gold and silver coin was scattered the length of
Long Beach Island.

The *' Manhattan " was wrecked by the same storm on
the same day the ** Powhatan" was driven ashore, and only
one man was saved from this vessel. He had floated
through the tumbling surf and was found in a little hut
on the beach, where he had crawled for protection from
the elements.

During the war of the Rebellion an English vessel
came ashore at Barnegat, and the only survivor of this
wreck was a cat with short front legs, long hind legs
and no tail. **Uncle" Caleb Parker, a quaint and unique
character v/ho ''kept" the Barnegat Light, found the
cat clinging to some wreckage and took it home. A few
days later he found himself the possessor of a family of
cats, all with short forelegs, long hind legs and no tails.

74 The Lure of Long Beach

These cats were considered nature freaks by the simple-
minded shore folk until an EngHshman visiting the
island explained that they were of a distinct ''breed of
cats" from the Isle of Man, off the English coast. Al-
though frequently crossed with the common and well-
known variety, several good specimens of these Manx
cats, with "gait hke a rabbit and a hopping lope," are
still to be found on Long Beach.

B ut the wreck of the good ship ** Francis" on the Long
Beach coast is the occurrence from which all local his-
torical events take their dates, at least in the conversa-
tion of the old-timers. The ** Francis " had sailed around
the Horn from California, and was laden with salmon
and with the finest of wines, liquors and brandies. To
this day the old salts and ancient mariners living on
Long Beach wrinkle their faces in smiles and smack
their lips involuntarily when the "Francis" is even
named.

When the ship started to break up under the pound-
ing of the waves the cases of salmon floated ashore and
were picked up by the frugal shore folk against a fish-
less winter. Then the casks of port, madeira, sherry,
champagne, burgundy, claret, moselle and tokay began
coming ashore, together with many barrels of brandy
and liquors. The news spread wildfire-like, and soon in
Beach Haven, along the island, and from the mainland
farms and villages, good, staid Quakers, Methodists,
Presbyterians, and free lances alike were running back
and forth along the beach waiting for a cask. Wheel-
barrows, wagons, anything with running gear, were

The Lure of Long Beach 75

pressed into service, and some of the natives even rolled
their barrels home.

The cellars of Beach Haven resembled those of some
ancient baronial castle or medieval abbey, and tem-
perance advocates looked sheepishly downward when
meeting inquisitive neighbors eye to eye. ** I guess
pretty much everybody was a-feelin' pretty good," one
Beach Haven pioneer put it, and smiled at the recol-
lection.

Men became cronies, and dated their friendship from
the wreck of the ** Francis," and sentiments similar to
those entertained by Tam O'Shanter were engendered :

" Tam lo'ed him like a vera brither ;
They had been fou for weeks thegither."

And not only the men but the women folks partook,
and became blithesome and gay. One eye witness
states that a resident who had never known the taste of
port smashed in the head of a cask, baled the fluid out
into tin pails with a dipper, and offered a pailful to any-
one who passed. Everybody who had no cask had at
least a five-quart pail full of the wine, and it was swal-
lowed like so much red lemonade on circus day.

Two demure young ladies, strangers to "the cup
that cheers," sipped a little sherry, and, liking the taste,
sipped a little more. Then they sampled the port.
The claret came next, and by the time their scandalized
mammas had tucked them into bed the maidens had
lost track of the different brands.

And even today a glass of the good ship "Francis* "

75 The Lure of Long Beach

brandy might be had in Beach Haven if one but went
about the matter carefully enough, and very, very tact-
fully.

And now, June 20, Anno Domini 1914, Long Beach
Island, after many years of strenuous endeavor, at last
is connected with the New Jersey mainland and with
the United States of America by an automobile and
wagon bridge. The bridge proper was built by private
capital at a cost of $90,000. The Long Beach approach
cost about $8000 and the Long Beach road about
$63,000. The mainland approach and road cost about
$18,000, and Beach Haven Borough alone spent
$18,000 on Bay Avenue, within the corporate limits,
bringing the lowest figure of cost of the improvement
up to $197,000.

Beach Haven occupies a unique position among
South Jersey seashore resorts in that it lies, to use a
favorite Long Beach expression, **six miles at sea." In
other words, it is separated from the mainland villages
of Tuckerton and West Creek by five miles or more
of open water of the Little Egg Harbor Bay.

The methods of reaching the island are, first, by
rail. Frequent trains from Philadelphia, Camden and
New York carry the visitor in comfort and with speed
to the wave-washed, breeze-swept shores of Long Beach.
And here it may be noted that Weather Bureau reports
show the temperature at Beach Haven to range from
five to ten degrees cooler throughout the summer
months than at other New Jersey resorts not located on
Long Beach. This low temperature is due largely to

^1

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Children's Paradise

The Lure of Long Beach 77

the fact that Long Beach Island never has a ** land
breeze" in the seashore meaning of the word, because
it is situated six miles out at sea and the **land breeze"
is converted to coolness before it reaches the Island.

The second method of reaching points on Long
Beach is by boat. During the summer months two
lines of boats ply between Atlantic City and Beach
Haven, using the New Jersey Inland Waterway route.
A boat line, too, is in contemplation between Beach
Haven and Barnegat City, and another between Barne-
gat City and Bay Head. These lines will enable the
New York and New England visitor to leave the land
at the northern end of Barnegat Bay and to follow the
cool and safe inland water channels southward, touching
at any of the Long Beach towns desired.

And from now (June 20, A. D. 1914) on, the popu-
larity of Long Beach and its resorts, including Barnegat
City, High Point, Harvey Cedars, Surf City, Barnegat
City Junction, Arlington Beach, Ship Bottom, Brant
Beach, Beach Haven Crest, Peahala, Beach Haven Ter-
race, Spray Beach, North Beach Haven and Beach
Haven, will increase by leaps and bounds. And thus it
is that in the year Anno Domini 1914 the long dormant
but nature-favored section of the New Jersey seacoast
known as Long Beach is at last coming into her own.

Heretofore there have been but two ways of getting
an automobile into Beach Haven — on a freight car or
on a flatboat. But this is now changed and Beach
Haven and every resort on Long Beach has been placed
on the automobile roads of the country, and can be

78 The Lure of Long Beach

reached on one's own rubber-tired wheels from Phila-
delphia, New York, Atlantic City, or from any point in
the land. The new road and bridge tap the State's
Ocean Boulevard at Manahawkin, and thus put Beach
Haven on the road twenty-five miles nearer New York
than is Atlantic City.

The bridge proper has been completed for some
time and was built by private capital. The new im-
provement had its origin in a conversation on a train
between Charles W. Beck and Judge Maja Leon Berry,
when Judge Berry suggested the incorporation of a
Turnpike Company. As a result of this conversation a
meeting of Long Beach property owners was called, and
this first meeting was attended by Charles W. Beck,
Robert F. Engle, W. Mercer Baird, James Baird, Henry
B. iMcLaughUn, Joseph Schonder, Herbert Willis, Rev.
Thomas J. Whelan, H. Earle McConnell and Samuel S.
Andrews. These gentlemen formed themselves into a
committee known as the Organization Committee of
the Long Beach Turnpike Company, and made an agree-
ment with Judge Berry by which he was authorized to
raise the funds necessary for building the bridge. Sub-
sequently the Long Beach Turnpike Company was or-
ganized with the following directors: Charles W. Beck,
W. Mercer Baird, Robert F. Engle, Henry B. Mc-
Laughlin, Ezra Parker, George E. Paul and Thomas S.
Sprague. The officers were : Charles W. Beck, Presi-
dent; Ezra Parker, Vice-President; Henry B. Mc-
Laughlin, Secretary, and W. Mercer Baird, Treasurer.

The contract was awarded and the bridge was built,

The Lure of Long Beach 79

but the bridge was useless without some means of
getting to it at either end. At the mainland end the
bridge began in a meadow and was separated from the
uplands by a great swamp. At the beach end the bridge
ended six miles from Beach Haven, with no road be-
tween. Having the bridge built, the energetic men of
Long Beach still had this unsolved road problem before
them, but it, too, has been solved.

The history of the bridge from the birth of the idea
until the driving of the last spike would fill a volume,
and the difficulties and obstacles overcome in procuring
the building of the connecting roads would fill another,
but, as in every emergency the man for the place arises,
so it was in the case of the Manahawkin-Long Beach
Bridge and roads. And to the Hon. Maja Leon Berry,
ex -Judge of Ocean County, is due in large measure the
credit for the successful completion of this magnificent
improvement that now connects historic Long Beach
with the terra firma of America.

The bridge is a solid structure, twenty feet in width
and approximately two miles in length. The first span
from the mainland across the bay is one mile long.

Great preparations have been made in contemplation
of the vital changes to be made upon Long Beach Is-
land because of the opening of the new bridge and roads.
On the mainland the farmers are tilling more land to
vegetables because they will be able to market their
produce on the beaches. The dairymen are enlarging
their herds for a like reason. Heretofore all comestibles
were shipped to the beach resorts by train, but now a

80 The Lure of Long Beach

ready access will be had by the teams of the mainland
farmer.

And in order to keep step with the onward march of
things the residents and investors in Long Beach have
organized the Long Beach Board of Trade. It is this
body of aggressive and progressive men that have made
possible the country-wide celebration incident to the
opening to the nation of the solid roads and substantial
bridge — a mending of nature's oversight — that are to-
day, June 20, A. D. 1914, thrown open to the world.

And like the arid deserts watered of old by the
River Euphrates until they ''blossomed as the rose,"
so will Long Beach Island, wind-swept and sand-waste
since the beginning of things, take from now on its
proper rank as the premier seashore pleasure ground of
that long sweep of ocean-washed beach-front between
the Maine and the Florida coasts.

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